Introduction: Health care professionals are vulnerable to several health problems, including overweight, stress and anxiety. As such, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a likely diagnosis in this population. Objectives: To investigate the association between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and levels of stress and anxiety in a sample of health care workers in a community hospital in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Methods: The sample consisted of 107 health care workers who were interviewed and screened for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease based on clinical, imaging and laboratory parameters. Occupational stress was evaluated using Lipp’s Stress Symptom Inventory, and anxiety was assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. Results: The mean age of the sample was 37.6 years. Most participants were female (89.1%) and the most frequent occupation was nursing technicians (83.2%). While 77.22% of participants did not report significant levels of stress, 30.7% did have mild anxiety. Statistical tests did not reveal a significant association between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and stress (p = 0.688) or anxiety (p = 0.996). Conclusions: All participants with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease had some degree of anxiety, but only some experienced stress symptoms, according to Lipp’s Inventory. Statistical tests did not confirm an association between stress, anxiety and the presence non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Nevertheless, the potential association between these variables should continue to be investigated given the global rise in the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and its implications for health care workers.

Between 2001-2005, U.S. Blacks experienced a 32% higher pancreatic cancer death rate than Whites. Smoking, diabetes, and family history may explain some of this disparity, but prospective analyses are warranted. From 1984-2004, there were 6,243 pancreatic cancer deaths among Blacks (n=48,252) and Whites (n=1,011,864) in the Cancer Prevention Study II cohort. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards models yielded hazards ratios for known and suspected risk factors. Population attributable risks were computed and their impact on age-standardized mortality rates evaluated. Blacks in this cohort had a 42% increased risk of pancreatic cancer mortality compared to Whites (HR=1.42; 95% CI 1.28 to 1.58). Current smoking increased risk by >60% in both races; although Blacks smoked less intensely, risks were similar to Whites (HR Black =1.67, 95% CI 1.28 to 2.18; HR White =1.82, 95%CI 1.7 to 1.95). Obesity was significantly associated with pancreatic cancer mortality in Black men (HR=1.66, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.63), White men (HR=1.42; 95% CI 1.25 to 1.60) and White women (HR=1.37; 95% CI 1.22 to 1.54); results were null in Black women. The PAR due to smoking, family history, diabetes, cholecystectomy, and overweight/obesity was 24.3% in Whites and 21.8% in Blacks. Smoking and overweight/ obesity play a substantial a role in pancreatic cancer. Variation in the impact of these factors underscores the need to evaluate disease on the race-sex level. The inability to attribute excess disease in Blacks to currently known risk factors, even when combined with suspected risks, points to yet undetermined factors that play a role in the disease process.